Pirandello inspires Matteo D’Amico’s new opera La vita nuda in Rome

Commissioned by Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the one-act work brings together characters from two Pirandello plays and receives its world premiere on 20 October.

Matteo D’Amico’s La vita nuda, a new opera drawing on Luigi Pirandello’s L’uomo dal fiore in bocca and La patente, will receive its world premiere at Rome’s Teatro Nazionale on 20 October 2026. Commissioned by Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the production runs until 25 October, with Alessandro Cadario conducting the company’s orchestra and Cecilia Ligorio directing.

Sandro Cappelletto has written the libretto, with dramaturgy developed jointly with Ligorio. The commission marks the 90th anniversary of Pirandello’s death.

Two plays meet at a railway station

The opera brings Pirandello’s characters together at a small railway station, where a power failure brings travel to a halt. Their enforced wait provides the setting for an encounter between two stories: one concerned with a man facing mortal illness, the other with Rosario Chiàrchiaro, whose reputation as a bringer of bad luck has left him socially excluded.

Ligorio describes the station as a limbo in which disrupted routines expose loneliness, fear and the need for recognition. The sets, designed by Gregorio Zurla, draw inspiration from Italian neorealist cinema.

D’Amico’s account of the score emphasises the interplay of eight individual voices, whose lines overlap in polyphony before coming together in a reflective final ensemble. The Roman composer’s previous music theatre works include Farinelli, la voce perduta, Le Malentendu and Il viaggio di G. Mastorna.

The cast and performances

Omar Montanari sings the Man with the Flower in His Mouth, alongside Andrea Concetti as Rosario Chiàrchiaro. The cast also includes Annunziata Vestri, Maria Grazia Schiavo, Blagoj Nacoski, Marcello Nardis, Roberto Abbondanza and Federico Longhi.

Costumes are by Vera Pierantoni Giua, with lighting by Fabio Barettin. The opera lasts approximately 90 minutes without an interval.

Performances take place on 20, 22 and 23 October at 20:00, 24 October at 18:00 and 25 October at 16:30.